Communications networks, such as the Internet, wide area networks (WAN), local area networks (LAN), and the like, are used for many different purposes. One of the major purposes of such a network is the transmission of data from one location to another, for example, from a central hub to a plurality of end user terminals. Such data can be simple text data, a combination of text and graphic data, video data, audio data, and the like.
In the case of the Internet, a large number of users may be accessing a particular web site at any given time. Commonly, the users accessing the same site are routed to various servers located at the web site facility, using an Internet facility, which distributes the requests among the various servers. In other embodiments the user requests are routed by a machine, which may be used to balance the demand among the various servers, such that the load is generally evenly spread between the respective servers. The servers commonly have access to a central database that contains all of the content, which the users may request from the web site. Thus, it does not matter which server is assigned to a user at any particular time, since any server can access the database and retrieve the content.
One use of the Internet is to facilitate interactive television (“ITV”). Interactive television combines conventional television with additional content (“interactive content”) to present a viewer with an enhanced version of a television program or commercial. In order to experience interactive TV, a viewer may make use of an ITV receiver. Such an ITV receiver may be, for example a “set-top” box, or a TV receiver that has built-in ITV receiver capabilities. ITV receivers may receive specially prepared TV signals which may include, but are not limited to, ITV data in the form of Uniform Resource Locators (“URLs”), triggers (e.g., Java-script function calls), and display files. An ITV receiver receives and decodes ITV data, which may then be used to access interactive content from a remote location.
Today, interactive television commonly uses the World Wide Web (“Web”) technology for delivering and viewing enhanced content. Specific web sites, addressed using URLs, are created and maintained as ITV sites. The content of many of these sites may be viewed using ITV receivers in much the same way that a computer can browse a web site. ITV receivers may include web browsers, which may display downloaded content along with TV video on a conventional television set. ITV receivers may obtain ITV web content via one of the ITV web sites, for example over a telephone line, which connects the ITV receiver to the Internet via an Internet service provider (ISP). Which sites are accessed, and how content is displayed, is determined by the ITV content. ITV content commonly includes links and triggers contained in the video portion of an ITV program. One method for encoding interactive TV links and triggers is specified in Electronic Industries Association specification number 746 (EIA-746) which is entitled “Transport of Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Information Using Text-2 Service”. EIA 746 is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.
Commonly, when a television program with available ITV content is received, the ITV viewer is given an option to receive the enhanced experience. If the viewer chooses to take advantage of the enhancements, the ITV receiver may establish a telephone connection to the Internet (if a connection is not already made), find an ITV web site based on a URL embedded in the ITV program, and download content that produces the enhanced experience.
FIG. 1 illustrates the overall signal and data flow for an exemplary ITV system. During the production phase of an ITV program or commercial, a program is edited from one or more master recordings 10. During the editing certain URL links and command triggers are embedded, by means of a data encoder 12, into the program, for example, in the vertical blanking interval (“VBI”) of the video portion of the ITV program. A data recorder 14 records the modified program for subsequent broadcast.
When desired the ITV program is broadcast, along with the embedded URLs and/or command triggers, by means of a data player 16 and broadcast station 18. An ITV receiver 20 in a viewer's home may receive these URLs and triggers. The ITV receiver may use the URLs and triggers to retrieve enhanced content from the Internet 21, for example by way of a telephone interface 22. The telephone interface may provide a two-way communication between the viewer and an ITV server 23. The telephone interface commonly also provides the majority of the interactive content as the bandwidth reserved for ITV data in today's TV transmissions is low. The TV program, along with the retrieved content, is displayed on a television or other display 24.
One form of interactive TV is interactive game show, which allows a user to play along with a game show using their ITV receiver. The web site providing the interactive game show content may also maintain a score for the user, as well as registration and transaction information. Conventionally, the necessary data for making the game show interactive, as well as received registration and transaction information, is stored at the single, central database so as to be accessible by all of the web servers. The storage of ITV data in a single central database can lead to delays, as each server must retrieve data from the same central database.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a system and method whereby multiple servers may accommodate a relatively large number of users over a communications network in a quick and efficient manner. In addition, it would be desirable to have a system and method that can dynamically control the particular content based on the users that access the system.